Westport Town Meeting in favor of override vote for schools

Saturday

May 3, 2014 at 10:06 PMMay 3, 2014 at 11:34 PM

Jeffrey D. WagnerCorrespondent

WESTPORT — After an emotional speech from one parent, annual Town Meeting on Saturday afternoon overwhelmingly agreed to allow the school to petition selectmen for a Proposition 2½ tax override election for the Westport Community Schools.

Selectmen will now have to call for an override election, which would ask for additional funds of around $815,000 for the schools during the 2014-15 school year.

This was one of the many items voters deliberated on during marathon-like town meetings that first started at 9 a.m. and then reconvened at 12:30 p.m. The morning meetings were delayed after School Committee Vice Chairman Melissa Pacheco made the motion. She said that many people in town wanted to attend the funeral services of Westport High School sophomore Erika Hall, who was killed in a car accident last weekend.

Once it reconvened at 12:30 p.m., it took three hours for residents to weigh in on more than 40 articles between the special Town Meeting and annual Town Meeting warrants.

The annual Town Meeting set the fiscal 2015 budget at $32.7 million, a figure that selectmen and Finance Committee members largely agreed upon.

At the start of the annual Town Meeting, Finance Committee Chairman Charles “Buzzy” Baron mentioned that the failed override vote last month at the annual town election, along with some bad luck extra expenses, have put the town in tough financial shape.

“We are forced to propose an operating budget that will cause the termination of several school employees, continued vacancies in other town positions and resulting reduction in town services,” Baron said in his opening address. “In addition, we have been forced to eliminate our capital improvement budget entirely, we are unable to make any contribution to our stabilization fund and we cannot continue our program of adding each year to our reserve to cover Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB).”

The speech appeared to set the tone.

A good portion of the annual Town Meeting was spent discussing a previous vote by the Finance Committee to remove the stipend of the town moderator and reduce the stipends of the selectmen from $6,264 to $100.

In the end, voters decided to restore those stipends, moments before they approved the community schools’ moving forward with a Proposition 2½ override.

Flanked by fellow educators, Westport Elementary School teacher Melissa Maltais-Avila, also a parent, addressed the voters.

She said a $16 million budget approved by selectmen and the Finance Committee would not be enough for the community schools. She and fellow teachers requested a budget level with this school year’s budget, which would require an additional $815,000. In fact, Superintendent Ann Dargon recently said that without that additional funding, the school would lay off approximately eight staff members.

“Our children deserve better; they deserve a quality education system and a community that cares,” Maltais-Avila said.

Maltais-Avila said the teachers are compensating for the lack of resources by paying for school products through their own funds. Teachers within the district are also one of the lowest paid in the county and continue to deal with more demands and rising class sizes.

She added that students are paying to participate in sports and clubs, which was not always the case. She also noted that during a recent visit from New England Association of Schools and Colleges, NEASC noted only one major weakness at the high school — lack of community funding for programs.

Maltais-Avila said the town pays far less than the state average per student.

“We are asking for a level services budget — the same that we currently have,” she said. “Don’t shortchange your children. They can’t be the source of our cuts.”

After the meeting, Maltais-Avila said there are still more steps before an override is approved. She said town selectmen must approve the item appearing on a selectmen’s agenda and then vote to hold an election for an override. Then, the override must pass.

Maltais-Avila still described Saturday’s vote as a win for the schools.

In other annual Town Meeting business, voters approved lifting the moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and facilities by the end of this fiscal year and allowing them to be located in a business district or the science and technology overlay district.

Planning Board Chairman James Whitin said the bylaw would give more control to local authorities and residents in deciding where a dispensary could be located in town. He said close to 67 percent of town voters approved of these dispensaries coming to the state.

Town Meeting also approved a sex offender bylaw that would give police the right to apprehend a Level 3 sex offender who is found within 500 feet of a school, day care center, park, library, elderly or recreational facility.

At the special Town Meeting, voters approved funding mechanisms to pay for the medical bills and related expenses of injured Westport firefighter Steven Lopes, who fell 30 feet from the roof of a house in March. He suffered traumatic injuries and is still recovering.

One article asked voters to transfer $456,000 from the stabilization account or free cash to pay for his medical bills and other related expenses within this fiscal year.

The other article addressed a funding mechanism up until June 2018. Residents voted to let selectmen to petition the state Legislature to allow the town to borrow funds from the state at a low interest. If that can’t be granted by state authorities, then the town can allow for a Proposition 2½ override, similar to a debt-exclusion override, which would call for a temporary tax increase to help pay for Lopes’ recovery.

Voters also approved that second option, which would give the town the option of paying up to $500,000 per year until June 2018 toward Lopes’ recovery.

Before the meeting, Town Administrator John Healey said there is no way of knowing how long it will take Lopes to recover or how much the total bill will be.

Baron told voters on Saturday that funding from the town is critical toward his recovery, as he was listed in critical condition after the fall.

The delay of Saturday’s meetings affected voter turnout. In the morning, 365 registered voters were present, but by the afternoon there were 204, according to Town Moderator Steven Fors.